Blanche
by Sand n' Sable
Summary: Rose and the family says goodbye.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N-This is my tribute . I am completely ignoring the show-**_**Golden Palace**_**-if anybody wonders about the storylines I put in here.**

**May Rue McClanahan rest in peace.**

**Disclaimer-I do not own **_**Golden Girls**_** in any way, shape or form. Just the idea of this story here.**

Rose was sitting in her living room in Miami. It was her living room now because...

Rose was softly crying when the doorbell rang. She got up to go answer it and there stood Rebecca with Aurora. Rebecca was looking in her bag of groceries so she didn't see the steady stream of tears down Rose's cheeks.

Rebecca spoke, "I stopped and got us some lemonade from the store down the street. It's awfully not and..." Rebecca comes right on in without even looking. She just puts her package down on the coffee table and Little Aurora says, "Momma?"

Rebecca looks at her daughter and asks, "What is it baby?"

Aurora steps up and gently takes Rose's hand and says, "Aunt Rose is crying"

Rose turns around and all color drains from Rebecca's face when she sees Rose. Rebecca's heart starts pounding like a drum in her ears and Rose says: "I'm sorry Rebecca"

Rebecca turns around and runs down the hall to her mother's room. She opens the door and it hits the wall. Then she sees her momma, beautiful even in death. Rebecca screams, "Momma!" She breaks down sobbing uncontrollably by her momma's bedside.

For a reason known only to her, Rose felt like the most blessed person in the room. She had lived and loved Charlie for 32 years and he died in her arms. She had married Miles and 6 months later, the found out he had terminal cancer and when he died a year later, she was holding his hand. And now…..Blanche….Rose has been the last person her best friend and roommate saw. She wasn't in the room when she died, but somehow that didn't matter.

Kirsten came running into the living room and went over to her mother. Softly, she sat down beside her and wrapped her arms around her and asked "How are you doing momma?"

Rose sniffles then says: "I'm okay"

Just then the .'s roll Blanche's body out on the gurney. Rose takes a look at Rebecca and they roll the body on out then Rose asks: "W-what do w-we do now?"

Rebecca puts a wet napkin to her mouth so Kirsten gently answers: "We say goodbye"

They all lean on each other as the gurney goes out.


	2. Chapter 2 Thank you for being a friend

A few days later in Atlanta, Georgia...

Everybody was gathering for Blanche Devereaux's fruneral. With t he amount of phone calls and e-mails and people asking for directions to the First Baptist church, it was quickly decided that, well, they would do something that nobody had done before. They held the funeral outside.

It was the first beautiful day that Atlanta has after a long, rainy winter and a unsettling Spring.

Blanche's casket was made of beautiful mahongany wood with a beautiful spring mix of flowers on the casket. At the side, there was a lifesized picture of Blanche surrounded with flowers and plants of all kinds that were being brought in by funeral home workers. The grounds of Twin Oaks looked like a huge flower garden.

Biff, Doug, Skip and Matthew with David, her grandson, were the pall bearers. They had all said in southern pride that if anybody was going to put their mother and grandmother in the ground, it would be them. David even came, Goerge's son from another marriage, he felt he had to give respects to the woman who gave him his only picture of his father.

The organ began playing _'What a Friend we have in Jesus'. _When it was finished, a gentleman in a grey three peice suit got up and went to the pulpit and said, "My name is Brother Brown. We are here to pay our last respects to Blanche Deverauex who was born in Atlanta, Goergia on..."

He looks at his notes, then leans over to Rebecca and whispers, "I don't have a date."

Rebecca looks at Janet and she says, "Niether do we, just go on"

THe pastor stands up and says, "Um, she passed from this life in June of 2010. I didn't know her, but I hear that Mrs. Deverauex was loved by everyone ( the men in the audince looks at each other ) but not so much as by her children, Rebecca, Janet, Biff, Doug, Skip and Matthew. She had 4 grandchildren, David, Melissa, Sarah and Aurora. I have been asked by the family to keep this brief..."

In the audience, Rose starts to remember back, back to times of Dorothy saying words she couldn't understand but being a loving friend. She also rembered Sophia telling Sicily stories and Blanche dating a endless stream of men. She remembered each memory long and carefully put t hem in a locked place in her heart.

By the time she quit remembering, the preacher stepped down and each person was going by to take a last view of Blanche. Blanche was Blanche even unto death. She had requested to be buried in a outfit to show herself best and Rebecca had picked out her mother's favorite dress.

Just for the people to pass by the coffin took nearly a hour! Kirsten was worried about her mother bing in the heat for so long but Rose dismissed that. When it was over and her friend went to her eternal resting place, Rose took her daughter's hand and said softly, "Let's go home"

It was then that Rose started hearing music-_'Thank you for being a Friend'_ and she asked Kirsten,, 'Do you hear that?"

Kirsten listened and said, "It must be a radio turned up loud. I over heard Blanche's sister Virginia say that they have noisy neighbors."

Rose wiped her tears and said, "It's that song...that was our song. Blanche, Dorothy, Sophia and myself. When that song first came out, we all knew it was for us."

Kirsten hugs her and Rose says, "It's strange that it's playing now."

Rose and her daughter leave for Florida.

**A/N Again, Rest in Peace, Rue.**


End file.
